Updated December 04, 2024 at 08:54 AM ET
Republicans have officially won a full trifecta of power in Washington, D.C., following GOP victories in several key U.S. House contests.
The Associated Press on Tuesday night called the final race in California, guaranteeing Republicans a narrow majority in the House and a three-seat majority in the Senate.
Republicans will have just a 220-215 majority, one less seat than this past Congress. A party needs 218 for a majority. That means Republicans lost a seat in a year when President-elect Donald Trump won the White House.
The result raises questions about how the GOP will fare in a post-Trump political world. Trump is term-limited and unable to run again in 2028.
That could mean Trump priorities, like tax cuts, take longer to pass until special elections are held to fill potential GOP vacancies. The party has struggled to pass legislation with a narrow majority and even ousted a speaker just last year.
The campaign for control of the House was waged on a narrow playing field of roughly three dozen competitive districts. While the presidential campaign was centered on seven purple states in the Midwest and the Sun Belt, the contest for the House featured a cluster of critical swing races in the blue states of New York and California.
President-elect Donald Trump will once again have allies on Capitol Hill in place to enact key items on his agenda, like border security. Republicans are also already planning an extension of the tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 — the last time he and his party had control of the White House and Congress.
Previously, House Republicans selected Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for his first full term in the role. Johnson must still be elected with 218 votes on the House floor on Jan. 3, 2025. An expected narrow majority means Johnson will need near unanimous support from GOP members to be reelected.
Republicans picked Johnson to lead the party in the House just over a year ago, after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed by his own members.
Johnson will work alongside Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who was elected to lead the 53-47 GOP majority in the Senate next year. Thune succeeds Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who announced earlier this year that he would step aside from party leadership after nearly 20 years.
Thune told reporters that his priority will be advancing Trump's agenda.
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"This Republican team is united. We are one team, we are excited to reclaim the majority and get to work with our colleagues in the House to enact President Trump's agenda," Thune said after his closed-door election. "We have a mandate from the American people — a mandate not only to clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump's priorities."
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